Complete membership application on first page of association section and send dues to:

PTA Treasurer

Donna Spittle

P.O. Box 708

Hummelstown, PA 17036

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

If you have been following my monthly reports, you know that this is an extremely busy time of year for me. But even through all the self-inflicted chaos, it is also a very exciting time for me. By attending the annual trapper rendezvous, I was able to catch up with friends and meet new ones. The same thing can be said about the Hunter-Trapper Education classes I teach and the rewards I experience manning the Trapper’s Booth at the County fairs. I guess the business world would call this networking. I call it living. Maybe it resembles your busy life.

Please remember to support your local District by attending their fall meeting and helping at the trapper training schools. I plan to attend several district meetings and schools this fall. I have the calendar marked with all the PTA events. God Willing, I will be making several trips to the western half of our commonwealth. You may want mark your calendar with the entire list of PTA event like I do, just in case you find yourself on the road. By visiting www.patrappers website you will find all the events listed. We are in the process of updating our website and make it more informative. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please contact Charlie Sykes or myself. Before I leave this topic, I need to ask you. Have you returned your PTA Sweepstake tickets to Jill Spittle? The drawing will be October 5, 2013 at our State Officers Meeting.

OUR IMAGE IS OUR FUTURE! — Brian Mohn

VICE PRESIDENT WEST REPORT

It is the time of year for us to take a few minutes to reflect on the importance of our Youth Trapping Schools in each district. I am excited to say that last year, we educated over 800 kids. Youth Education is a priority for us because they are the future of trapping and conservation. All members have talents that help the trapping schools be successful. The trapping schools need volunteers to be instructors, chaperones, set-up crew, clean-up crew, registration helpers, kitchen crew, etc. Please take the time to contact the Trapping School coordinator in your district and see where you can be of assistance. Thank you to all that have been dedicated over the years to make these schools successful!

In June, I attended the FTA Convention in Marshfield, Wisconsin with Dave Eckels. I would like to thank everyone at the convention for the courtesies they extended to us. It was nice convention and it was well attended. I accepted a Sly Fox Circle Award for District 1. They received this award in appreciation for their support to FTA.

God Bless. — Charlie Sykes

PUBLIC RELATION DIRECTOR’S REPORT

OUR IMAGE OUR FUTURE

Lura Colinet is the supervisor for PENNDOT’s Welcome Center I-81 South in Susquehanna County, PA. During 2012 Lura distributed 3200 of our educational coloring books through her welcome center. At this point in 2013 Lura is once again at the 3200 mark and I would not be surprised if she hits 5000 this year.

On the 16th of July President Brian Mohn, VP East Joel Whitehead, FTA Director Mark Kasten and I met with Lura. Brian presented a beautiful plaque to Lura on behalf of the PTA for her exceptional contribution to our educational efforts. Lura was quite surprised and appreciative of this recognition.

As I indicated in the past, every welcome center in PA has received our educational coloring books. If you have the opportunity to visit any of these centers please identify yourself and thank them for their contribution. So far this year, 8900 of these books have been distributed through these 14 PENNDOT centers. Barry L Warner

CONVENTION REPORT

The 2013 State Convention was a huge success. I want to thank all the dedicated people who helped make it a success – workers, tailgaters, vendors, and spectators.

Congratulations to all the people who won awards for their dedicated service throughout the year. Steve Wentzel from District 10 was elected as Conservationist of the Year.

There were 52 vendors, 112 tailgaters, and countless campers. Attendance was down slightly to what we expected. With last year’s fur prices, we thought we would see 2,000 to 2,500 people through the gate. There were approximately 1,500 paid spectators, and if you include the workers and vendors, we had about 1,700 in attendance.

The auction went well on Friday and Bill Meck, the auctioneer, did a great job of keeping things moving. The cable restraint class was filled up. The general meeting and social hour were both well attended. There were demo’s every day from some of the top people in the business, and plenty of good food. Finally, congratulations and thank you to all the winners and participants of the mountain man and trap setting contests.

We sold out of convention patches, but if anyone would like one, let me know and I can get more made. We do have commemorative shirts, coffee mugs and mink boards left. If anyone would like any of these items, let me know.

I hope everyone had a great time at the show, and again thanks to everyone who was involved. That’s it for now. — Scot Mucha, 610-863-9759

DISTRICT 1 REPORT

Hello members,

I am writing to you from the NTA convention in Lima, Ohio. For those of you that may not have had a chance to attend a state or national convention, it is a great time watching the demos, making friends, and buying supplies for the upcoming season.

Some of the events scheduled within the district are: Crawford county fair august 17th – 24th, Stoneboro fair august 28th – September 2nd, Pymatuning waterfowl expo – September 21st – 22nd, Forest county will be having their trappers day on September 21st from 8:00 am to 2:00pm a cable restraint course is being offered at a cost of $15.00 per student, must pre-register on the PGC website, and the class will begin at 8:00am.

The district trapping school will be held in Erie county on September 14th at Bill Phillips’ house, which is located at 2789 Dublin road in Waterford. The school will begin at 8:00am and last till 4:00pm, Walter Greathouse is heading up the trapping school once again. He can be contacted at 724-475-4138.

The fall district meeting will be held at Caflisch park in Union City. The park is located on Bridge Street. The park will be open at 8:00am and our fall meeting will begin at noon. Any questions i can be contacted at 814-823-5429.

Our image is our future. — John Chase

DISTRICT 2 REPORT

Hello, I hope your summer is going well. I’m going to make this short, Clarion County Youth Field Day is this coming weekend; and I’m packing for the NTA convention in Ohio!

Upcoming Dates

July 28- Deadline for District 2 Scholarship Applications

August 10th- The Bob Gilford Memorial Trapping School 8am-4pm Beaver Creek Pavilions, off of rt. 208 west of knox

August 11-17- Dayton Fair (volunteer to help handout educational materials at the D2 table if you are able)

October 13- Fall meeting at Happy Hunters Sportsmen Club, Fenelton Pa. Doors open at noon, meeting will begin at 1pm. 50/50 raffle, 5 for $1 table. The member participant drawing will be held at this meeting for $250.00 Dealers and tailgaters are welcome to attend.

DISTRICT 3 REPORT

Hi All,

Hope you’re enjoying your summer, been kind of wet around here so far. Since my last report, I did make it out to Marshfield, Wisconsin to attend the FTA convention and do some nosing around to see what we have in store next June. It was well attended and I did see a lot of Pa. trappers out there. I will tell you that the FTA board is happy to be coming to Pa. next year to share a convention with the PTA. If the vendors signing up for indoor spots are an indication, I think it will be a big convention. Let’s hope fur prices stay high this fall, that seems to always drive attendance up. With both organizations’ functions being held at the same convention, it will be busy. Seems like there will be something going on at all times, so we will be needing a reassembly of all of our safety green shirts from 2010, along with any members who would like to help out with this event. Let’s make it one to remember. I’ll try to get our convention meetings posted on the PTA website under events, so you can find out when and where they will be.

If you receive this issue in time, don’t forget about our pig roast / picnic at Cedar Creek Park on August 24. You should have received your fall newsletter in the mail by now with info on the picnic as well as our scholarship. Give me a call if you didn’t get yours for some reason and I’ll mail you one asap.

Our county fairs should be just about over by the time you read this report, so I’ll have to give you an update on them in next month’s issue. The fairs are a lot of work, so I have to thank the members who gave their time to set up, tear down, or man the booths at any of the fairs. Thanks to all who did their time at the fairs this year.

Our trapper’s school will be held on September 21 at the Youngwood Sportsmen Club. We do ask for pre-registration so we will have enough lunch to go around, give me a call to sign up or pass this info on to anyone who would be interested.

‘Till next time. — Dave Eckels, 724-348-6721

DISTRICT 5 REPORT

We are in the heart of the summer as I write this, but so far we’ve had plenty of rain and it has been cool the last several days. As the days start to get shorter, I start to think about the fall ahead and start to make plans. Trapping season will be here before we know it.

District 5 fall meeting will be held on Sept. 21st at the Indiana County Fox & Coon Hunting Association located at 255 Ramsey Run Road, Indiana, PA 15701. This will be an all day event starting at 8:00 am and lasting until 4:00 PM. This event is being held in conjunction with the Indiana County Fox & Coon Hunting Association and is being publicized as a sportsman’s day. At least five vendors will be present and a guest demo will be presented by Jeff Robinson of JR & Sons. Please feel free to come out and enjoy the outing and support our district and also invite your fellow sportsmen to come along and learn more about trapping.

Please feel free to contact Pat Wess @ (814) 262-9455, Don Sager @ (814) 443-3185 or me with any information you would like to see in this report or any questions you might have. I can be reached at (814) 686-0497 or e-mail me at bdstern@atlanticbb.net Thanks for reading. — Brian Stern, Tipton, PA

DISTRICT 7 REPORT

August 24 will be our trapper training day and our cable restraint class at White Deer. September 7 will be our mini-convention at the Booneville Campground near Loganton, starting at 8 am.D-7 meeting will be at 1 pm. January 12 will be D-7 fur auction at the Montour-Delong Fairgrounds near Washingtonville.

I would like to thank Rick Troup for tanning a black raccoon hide for our district display. I recently found out that District 7 lost one of our past directors, Robert Neff was director from 1968 until 1971, he was living in New York .

District 7 is hosting the PTA state banquet March 8, if you would like to make a donation, please contact me and if you would like to buy tickets contact, Joe Mast at 570-568-0175. — Pete, 570-437-2679 or minkman46@aol.com

DISTRICT 8 REPORT

AUGUST

Hi. I would like to introduce myself, my name is Andrew “Pete” Hartenstine. I am taking over as director for Chuck Filler in District 8. I would like to thank Chuck for his hard work over the past 2 years as director. District 10 put on a very good rendezvous, unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate for most of the weekend. We have several events coming up in District 8. On August 17, we will be holding our trapping training school at Blain Picnic Grounds. I would like to thank all the vendors in D-8 who donated money for our trapper training shirts. If you need any trapping supplies see the guys on the shirt. By the time you read this, everyone should have their card for our next meeting. It will be held August 18 at Kramer Sportsmans Club. Hope to see everyone there. This year will be the first year that Carlisle Fairgrounds will be holding the Carlisle Sports and Outdoor Nationals on September 6-8. We will be having a booth there. Theresa Houtz is working hard to get the demos set up and help for our booth. If you would like to help, please let me know or come to our meeting at Kramer. The following weekend we will be holding our annual outdoor show at Tuscarora Valley Heritage Grounds in East Waterford September 12-14. It’s at the same place its been the past couple of years. We have 6 tables left inside the building, so contact myself or Chuck Filler to get one while they last. October 10-12, we will have a booth set up at Blain Heritage Days at Blain Picnic Grounds. Finally, we will have our shrimp feed/last meeting October 20 at Blain Picnic grounds. Please let us know ahead if you plan on coming so we know how much food we will need to get.

I would like to thank everyone who has been helping me get myself on the right track. It’s a real honor being the director of our district and at 25 years old, there are a lot of things I need to learn. Thanks again. — Andrew “Pete” Hartenstine Home: 717-369-3223 Cell: 717-380-2759 Email: Ahart075@aol.com

SEPTEMBER

Hi. I would like to apologize to all the members who were looking forward to reading the report last issue. I had sent in the report before the due date, but for some reason it did not make it into the Trapper. Not much has changed from last report. By the time you read this we should have already held our trapper training school and meeting at Kramer. I will keep this short with all the information being in August report above. Hope everyone is getting ready for the upcoming season as it is coming fast. — Andrew “Pete” Hartenstine

DISTRICT 10 REPORT

Hello to all. Hope everyone enjoyed the summer, and it is time to gear up for the upcoming season. Fur prices look very good again this year.

Monroe and Northamptom County Conservation Camps were held in July. Thanks to Steve Wentzel and Bob Counterman and everyone else who helped out. It was a great experience for all the kids and they all enjoyed themselves.

The State Convention was held back in June. I want to thank everyone who came to support the PTA. For a more detailed report, see the State Convention Report here in The Trapper.

Fall convention is coming up on Sept. 27 & 28 at the West End Fairgrounds. We will need people to help set up, clean up, and run things during the show. There will be plenty of vendors to get your last minute supplies.

Other Upcoming Events: Kempton Sports Show – August 23, 24 & 25; Monroe County Youth Field Day – September 7.

That’s all for now. Enjoy the fall season and get ready for the upcoming trapping season. God Bless. — Scot Mucha – 610-863-9759

DISTRICT 11 REPORT

As I write this, the Lebanon County and Schuylkill County fairs are underway and both events have booths covered by District 11 members doing good PR work for us. Donna and I, along with Jason Gehman and Laurel, had a display at the Ned Smith Day festival in Millersburg. We again were well received and had the opportunity to talk with a lot of the non-trapping public about trapping and furbearers. Ray Kauffman and Conner Martin did the trapping booth at the Delta Water Fowlers Youth Day. Ray said Conner stayed at the booth and talked trapping all day rather than participate in the other activities for the kids. They talked to several anti-trappers and were able to change the thinking of some of them. Good work men! Thank you on behalf of the district to all of you that help out with these types of events. More good gets done there than you may realize.

I want to pass along a word of encouragement to sell some sweepstakes tickets. The drawing for these is October 5th which will be here before you know it. Ticket sales are down at this point in time so maybe you can help us out and sell a few.

Our next business meeting for D-11 will be Sunday, Oct. 6th at Middlecreek Wildlife Mgmt. Center in the parking lot past the sunfish pond. The meeting will be at 2PM. It is at that meeting that we will draw a name from the tickets of all 2013 meeting attendees and that person will win a paid tuition to the FTA Trappers College. If you haven’t attended a meeting of D-11 this year, Middlecreek is your last chance to participate in this drawing.

I will pass along one more time the info for the Trapper Training Schools:

I will get you up-to-date from our all-day event at Millcreek in next month’s column. — Mike Spittle, (717)367-2637, spittlefam@paonline.com

DISTRICT 12 REPORT

Hello from the Southeast again. I hope everyone is doing well. Our pig roast fundraiser will be held Friday night September 20th starting at 6:00 pm. It is a great socializing event, live music, good eats and a bon fire. All are welcomed. For more information contact Dave Rodgers at 610-273-7946.

Our trappers training school will be held Saturday September 21st, starting at 8:00 am. We cover techniques for all major furbearers in PA by top notch instructors. It’s a great school and worth the trip for the day. For more info, contact Rick Ameisen at 610-235-7276.

Have a great rest of the summer and I hope to see you in September. — Rick Ameisen